Warid Telecom of Pakistan today went public with press ads (produced above) about its plans for going 4G LTE, to possibly become the first operator in the market to deploy 4G LTE network in the country.

A single sentenced message along with mention of 4G LTE clearly indicates that Warid is pretty much done with its homework and is now all set to go up with the 4G plans.

Despite not participating in recently held 3G / 4G auction, Warid has decided to go 4G LTE with its available spectrum that it had bought in 2004.

While there were hints that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority might not allow Warid for deploying 4G LTE, today’s press ads hint that PTA and Warid have reached a settlement. We don’t have confirmations from PTA on this though.

Last we heard was that PTA might not allow Warid to deploy 4G since it could unbalance the industry. Moreover, according to IM for 3G and 4G licensees, no new operator would be allowed to launch 3G / 4G services for 18 months as part of government’s agreement with spectrum winners.

While we don’t have official confirmation on regulatory approvals, as we said above, it is now certain that against all odds Warid has managed to convince PTA for the 4G LTE deployments.

We know that Warid CEO was to meet with Chairman PTA during this week and apparently things went successful on Warid’s part.

If sources are to be believed then Warid is aiming to run the test on 4G LTE in last week of May 2014, while its already in process of deploying 4G LTE network in 5 cities, which it will announce after successful tests accordingly.

On a related note, Warid sent an SMS broadcast to its customers the other day to tell them that Warid will announce new data technologies in days to come.

Warid has currently around 12 million subscribers. It has 8.8Mhz spectrum from 1800Mhz band in addition to 5Mhz in 900Mhz band, which it had bought at the time of launch in 2004.

Warid was left out before this.. well lets see how this will work out for Warid.. Having a second LTE operator in country will push Zong around to bring in LTE earlier. and im hoping 3G will also be launched in more cities in less time

Stone

“Warid’s today announcement” needs to be changed to Warid’s announcement today. Secondly, if are not familiar needs to be changed to If you are not familiar. #proofread

So according to this logic of being technology neutral, Warid could have taken “permission from PTA” and launched a 4G LTE network back in 2010 when it first surfaced. The other operators could have been on such a disadvantage for these 4 years. While that hasn’t happened the other operators are such dumb to pay millions of $$$ for 3G/4G. And with this technology neutral logic it also means that for any new technology like 5G or whatever, Warid will just take “permission from PTA” and go ahead with it. WTF?.

Naveed

Yes exactly , that is the reason they paid $$ when buying their spectrum when they first came in Pakistan :P so that was a good move on the first hand…

khursheed

warid has no money for LTE.. they are just making fool to the people of Pakistan. Vendors and Banking sector are asking money from warid which warid owed from many years. PTA should notice this warid ad which published in newspaper.
Actually warid is scared from customers to b port out to the other networks.. so they want their subscriber have hope for 4G. (just like people of Pakistan having hope for electricity).
Do u think all companies are foolish to give more than 1 billion dollars to govt of Pakistan for 3G and 4G launching and warid is so smart that it will start 4G services without obtaining license.
you must have cash in hand for starting new services.. otherwise sheikh chilli ki tarah khawab toh dekhnay mein koi harj nahi.
warid atleast need 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion US dollars for starting this new services and it has debt of 800 million dollars.. abi apna debt he utaar dain toh barhi baat hai warid kay leay..

Techi Techi

great

Techi Techi

I am a warid user, we kept Quite because we knew our Worth we knew that Warid must have some thing excited or worth waiting for US!!!!!! ……

for all the loosers….. its in your FACE …….

wyvv

I am pretty sure that MOBILINK will buy the 4G License that is still pending and Mobilink had 10Mhz in there pocket ;)

We need clarification from PTA I would like to ask propakistani to confirm through your resources and come out with exact details. Waiting for your next blog

ShoukaT

That about sums it up…

Abdullah Saleem

4G/LTE enabled phone isn’t a necessity for 4G service. There are many other ways possible to get a 4G Speed through your cellular network, like Routers (don’t sure about their availability in Pakistan.)

Nice strategy. But there is one thing which we should never forget. That is internet backbone. Our internet backbone bandwidth is weak. So they can’t offer more than 14Mbps(lets assume. Although this is very high too). which can also be done using HSPA+ on 3G

I think there is some problem with this headline “Warid goes public…”. When we say a company going public, it means something else i-e it is the first time the general public has the ability to buy shares. A better headline should have been “Warid publicly advertises its 4G LTE Deployment Plans”.

Junaid Ahmad

Thanks God, i love Warid for voice and using it for last 8 years and with this LTE 4G, its the just WoW

Bravo – Warid

tiwana

there are 2 sub categories in 4G technology old is wimax and the latest is LTE both are 4G expect zong will also launch LTE because its time to launch LTE over wimax

Reads

LTE is 1 standard of 4g, other is wimax

yajamal

Telenoid or rather “Paranoid”. Get over it. Something is burning and smell is yucky…

They will prove!! Just wait and see!! Have you ever experience with Warid EDGE speed?? I think no! I can download 100MB file just an hour (25-27KB/s, this speed remains constant throughout a day and even 365*12*24). They are using top quality equipment to provide high speed EDGE. In near era, They will prove that they are best, and will be best..!! If you are Anti-Warid, then I cannot say anything about it.

DJ

I am sure they came to your home to make sure that you don’t leave Warid at all :) boss every other company got official verdict license etc .. Warid looks like has some exclusive love with Government or PTA that they don’t want to disclose such things ?? :) but at last if Warid has such thing I am more than happy as we will see more competition in market and there will be no more monopoly of Zong in market (4G).. Rest Keep your fingers crossed :)

DJ

Who Zong per Switch ho Jaye :P lolz

DJ

Yeah multimillion company just realized after a week oohh they has 4G too :) Try to understand the game as you being a Warid user you have faith now on warid you are not going to leave warid at all for next one month at least :)

ali

@Ammar666:disqus very well said…hahhah

Naveed

Yes I have a same concern too .. first of all #4GLTE will be expensive and lets see how #Warid comes up with the packages :(

DJ

I wish that I am wrong :) Every Ad posted by Telcos in Newspaper is not Approved by PTA :)

Usman Ali

they are testing LTE services i guess a month or two. yes they have 4G in form of wimax which is another type of 4G and now they testing LTE which they want to launch in warid also

http://madad.pk www.madad.pk

How you come to know that Warid is She not He:O?

Abdul Rehman Sheikh

Because of PTA and the former government. They wanted their cut in the transaction!

ali

@disqus_lFJJGAgo7D:disqus: @DJNOMI:disqus is not haters of Warid.. he is innocent as he knows nothing.. p

ali

@Usman Ali:disqus: hahahahha

ali

@DJNOMI:disqus you are very innocent very much…

Zulqarnain Nizamani

Their edge is limited to few big cities , 80% of their network GPRS so even after LTE, we will have same GPRS , that is why I m going to port out after commercial launch , may be Zong , Becuase I receiving Zong`s EDGE in my small village

Amir

Because she did not participate in the auction ;-)

LOL

The spectrum warid has enables it to switch from 2G to 4G only. It cannot switch to 3g, smartass.

jamal

good luck bro. Keep rotting.

lol

Your law firm is a filthy ham and egg opportunist looking to earn cheap money by targeting a firm. Good luck with your shitass shenanigans.

Muhammad Aamir

Well Said :D

Abdullah

Warid!

Abdullah

Official Clarification from Warid!

Muhammad Aamir

It is yesterday news. Their request has accepted. It’s the Express Tribune news brother, not a joke!

NS

i have every operator’s edge/gprs. Warid’s services are very reliable and consistent. i have used it on the move as well and no complaints at all. ufone and zong give disconnections/muted channels telenor drops out like its voice calls drops :P. mobilink can be rated as second best

Sohaib Razzaq

My Nexus 5 32 GB have 4G LTE option, although I am not a warid customer I don’t see why most of the newer high end smartphones won’t have 4G. It is pretty old and matured standard now.